A Festive Filled Day

This weekend has truly been such a great weekend and just what I needed after this past week.  Friday evening started off the weekend perfectly, but Saturday made it even better!  Yesterday was quite the festive filled day, which was just what I was hoping for.

Cody worked on putting Christmas lights on the house outside while I decorated the inside and set up the tree.

[My grandma's old Bible turned to Luke 2 - the birth of Jesus]

[Our stockings... Cody's is the snowman, mine is Santa.  I kind of wish I called shots on the snowman first - he's so cute! ]

Christmas towels were also hung in our guest bathroom and kitchen, Christmas countdown calendars were hung, Christmas candles were lit, and our wreath was put on the front door.  I even finished addressing our Christmas cards!  It was quite the productive day.  I  LOVE Christmas!

 I also roasted a turkey dinner for us yesterday.  Told you it was a festive filled day!   I decided to crank out another mini “Thanksgiving dinner” because the turkeys were on sale for super cheap and I wanted some leftovers.  Since we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving, we didn’t get any leftovers.  I was feeling a little jealous of all the leftover turkey and cranberry sandwiches I was seeing all over the blog world this past week, so I decided to do our own turkey.

 I bought a smaller turkey at about 12.5 lbs. since it was just going to be Cody and me.  I’ve only ever roasted a turkey once before (last year), and it didn’t turn out the best.  The parts that were cooked were too dry and then some of it wasn’t it cooked enough.  I was pretty disappointed, but I thought I’d give it another chance this year.  I’m so glad I did because the turkey last night came out so good!  Cody is not a huge fan of turkey, and he even was oohing and ahhing about it over dinner.  I was quite proud.  The taste was delicious and the meat wasn’t over done - perfect!  I don’t like to brag, but this turkey was something worth bragging about my friends. :)

I perused the internet for what looked like a good rub or seasoning for the turkey, and I finally came across one that looked unique but not too strange.  Plus, I had most of the ingredients on hand.  I made my own version of it, but it was essentially from this recipe.  My “version” is a little healthier and the ingredients are changed up a bit.

Ashley’s Thanksgiving Turkey 

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes

Cook Time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients:

• 11-14 lb. turkey (I used a 12.5 lb. one)
• 1/3 cup light butter at room temperature
• 1/3 cup light mayonnaise
• 2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 3 tablespoons thyme
• 2 tablespoons rosemary
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• baby carrots
• 1/2 yellow onion (cut into quarters)
• lots of salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Remove neck and giblets from the turkey.  Ensure that turkey is entirely thawed.
3. Carefully separate skin from the body of turkey.  (It’s a little time consuming, but not that difficult.)
4. Mix together butter, mayonnaise, yogurt, thyme, rosemary, and garlic in a small bowl.
5. Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the carrots and onion.
6. Rub the butter-mayonnaise-yogurt mixture all over the turkey, under the skin and on the outside.
7. Bake in oven for 2 - 3 hours at 350 degrees.
8. Cover turkey with foil for 20-30 minutes and put back in oven at the end.
9. Slice it up and enjoy!

I also made some creamy smashed potatoes with gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, roasted brussel sprouts, and popped some Rhodes rolls in the oven.  Delicious!

Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Prep Time: 0-3 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar or other sweetener
• 1 12 oz. bag of cranberries
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Put water and sugar in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.
2. Pour cranberries into saucepan.  Bring back to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 8 minutes.  Stir occasionally.
4. Stir in flour and let simmer for another 2 minutes.
5. Let cool and place in refrigrator until ready to serve.

After dinner some tree decorating took place!  I blasted the Pandora Christmas station, and we got to work.  We have an artificial pre-lit tree which makes things go much quicker than a real one.  Although I love the smell of a real tree, I appreciate the easy set up of a fake one more.

We rented “Crazy Stupid Love” to watch last night from Redbox while we snacked on some Dreyer’s Peppermint Ice Cream.  This is one of my favorite store bought holiday treats.  My mom and I used to always eat this together around the holidays when I lived at home.  After I finished my ice cream, I actually passed out pretty quickly.  I was so tired!  From what I could tell in the beginning, the movie was only so-so anyways, so I didn’t feel like I missed much.

I’m so glad we finally got all of our Christmas decorations finished!  Now I need to get to work on some of our Christmas shopping…

Questions:

• Do you decorate your house/apartment for Christmas? 
• What are some of your holiday traditions?
• Have you tried peppermint ice cream?  Love or hate it?